André Goffin (Belgium, 1930) studied drawing at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Namur and painting at the Académie de Bruxelles under the direction of Anto Carte (1886-1954). After some figurative...
André Goffin (Belgium, 1930) studied drawing at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Namur and painting at the Académie de Bruxelles under the direction of Anto Carte (1886-1954).
After some figurative works, he started making abstract paintings with acrylic paint, characterised by strict, flat tones and geometric shapes. He was among the devoted followers of geometric abstraction, who determinedly continued in their search for new compositions. The shapes, combined with the colours, were open to all possible combinations, as long as balance and dynamism were achieved. By introducing curves, playing with colour values, rejecting symmetry, creating contrasts and dividing surfaces in unexpected ways, he forced the viewer to discover what was not immediately visible. Goffin composed his paintings rigorously, striving for a rhythm between surfaces and colours.
In 1968, he won the Anto Carte prize and held his first solo exhibition. In 1973, he received the Europe Prize from the city of Ostend.
Together with his colleagues Jean Dubois, Francis Dusépulchre, Jacques Guilmot, René Huin, Victor Noël, Michel Renard and Marcel Verdren, he co-founded the groupe "Art concret en Hainaut" in 1973, and became a member of the "Cercle artistique et littéraire de Charleroi".
From 1977 to 1995, he taught painting at the Art Academy of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre.
Several of his works can be found in the collections of museums in Charleroi and in the collection of the Belgian state.
De Gulden Roos, p. 424; Serge Goyens de Heusch (dir.), xxe siècle. L'art en Wallonie, Bruxelles/Tournai, Dexia/La Renaissance du livre, 2001, p. 274; Serge Goyens de Heusch, Art belge au xxe siècle: Deux cents artistes, Bruxelles, Éditions Racine, 2006, p. 244; Paul Piron, Dictionnaire des artistes plasticiens de Belgique des xixe et xxe siècles, vol. 1 : A-K, Ohain-Lasne, Éditions Art in Belgium, 2003